List of Languages By Number of Native Speakers

List Of Languages By Number Of Native Speakers


The following tables list the 100 largest languages in the world by native speakers, roughly corresponding to languages with more than seven and a half million estimated native speakers, ordered by number of speakers. Two lists are given, which disagree in many particulars; other estimates will vary again, and the numbers should be taken as no more than an indication of the rough order of magnitude of a linguistic community.

Since the definition of a single language is to some extent arbitrary, some mutually intelligible idioms with separate national standards or self-identification have been listed together, including Indonesian and Malay; Croatian, Bosnian and Serbian etc.

For a list of the smallest languages in the world, please see Lists of endangered languages.

Read more about List Of Languages By Number Of Native Speakers:  Nationalencyklopedin (2007), Ethnologue (2009)

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